A Little Side Tracked

At the end of Why you should care about virtualization (part 2) I stated that part three should come along much quicker than part two did. Well here I am almost a month later and part three still isn’t ready.

But I’ve got a very good reason this time. With the little free time I had to write, I spent it focused on a piece for VIRTUALSTRATEGYMAGAZINE. And it is with their permission that I reprint my work here. Below is my first piece of work published anywhere, ever … very exciting for me   It was originally published on July 24th, 2008 on the VIRTUALSTRATEGYMAGAZINE website. Here is the official link: How did they do that?!

This morning I found myself watching one of those drug commercials we’ve all come to know and make fun of. You know what I’m referring to. Each one varies a bit but they’re all basically the same. This one was for a new medication that treats chronic diarrhea and it opens with a very handsome guy mountain biking down an ocean front cliff, the sun in his face, and the wind at his back. Angels were singing and birds were chirping. The commercial ends with total world peace and all the world leaders holding hands and singing “Kum Ba Yah” around a perfect campfire. Awesome! I need to get me some chronic diarrhea! Wait. Hold on. How did they do that?!

As I watch the Microsoft marketing engine shift into high gear, and as I read various articles and posts scattered throughout the blogsphere about the recent release of Hyper-V, I can’t help but feel like I’m watching the techie version of a drug commercial. I mean seriously, for three years the Microsoft zombies have been holding hands, surrounding the virtualization crop circles, eyes glazed over and swaying side-to-side in perfect harmony, constantly repeating their unmistakable mating call “hyyyperrrrrveeeeeeeeeee.” And now the mother ship has landed. The result? Phrases like “Microsoft will eat VMware for lunch” and “VMware will be dead in five years” and “VMware will be the next Netscape” are a dime a dozen. Really? Awesome! I need to get me some Hyper-V! Wait. Darn it, I fell for it again! How did they do that?! And where are my diarrhea pills?

Let me clearly state that I’m actually not a Microsoft hater. I write this article using Microsoft Word which is installed on my Windows XP operating system, both of which I love. And my Microsoft mouse ROCKS! It’s got all sorts of cool buttons and it lights up and it’s shiny!!! Weeeeeee!

Don’t mistake my twisted humor as a full-on attack of Microsoft or of Hyper-V, because it’s really not. To be perfectly honest, in my limited exposure to Hyper-V, I would say it’s a half decent start for a version 1.0 hypervisor. My intent really is to just cut through the hype and the marketing spin surrounding it.

Let’s not lose sight of the real reasons we are virtualizing the in first place. Sure, creating a virtual machine is fun and easy and the lure of putting 30 VMs on a single physical machine is certainly powerful. But creating a VM became possible almost 10 years ago and server consolidation of this magnitude has been happening for at least 3 or 4 years now.

Today, the true power of virtualization is revealed at the management and automation layer. With the proper platform and tools in place, IT can actually take control of their infrastructure, becoming the choreographers of a fantastic ballet of dancing VMs. And simply being given the option to create a VM doesn’t come close to delivering on this promise. Rather, to achieve what we’re really looking for, we need a whole new set of management and automation tools. We need a set of tools that are purposefully built from the ground up, capitalizing on all the inherent properties of a VM. And if you’re just starting to virtualize, believe me when I say you’ll get here fast. Don’t let anyone fool you into thinking that you can wait for this type of management.

The good news is that this is more than just a promise for many companies, and it can be for you, too. Disaster recovery, virtual lab automation, release management, provisioning management, life cycle management … VMware has virtualization management and automation solutions that address all of these areas (and more) and they’re available today. Better still, they’re built around a hypervisor that’s been in the data center for years, not a few days

It’s easy to get lost in the smoke and mirrors of phantom products and even easier to choke on the exhaust of a marketing engine in full throttle. So do your homework and make decisions based on solid facts. And while this is a new frontier for all of us, VMware isn’t new to the game and they have very real virtualization management solutions today. Why wait? You’re missing out and wasting a ton of money if you’re waiting for the free version to be “good enough.” And really, I equate this to waiting to see if my 80 year old grandma will be able to break dance. Gosh darn it, it took her an hour just to stand up! Regardless of what she tells me, I just don’t see her bustin’ a move anytime soon.